We Americans love smoking things. Barbecue is in our blood. Land is passed down from generation to generation because the trees that grow on that land provide the best smoke. Weekend festivals are dedicated to people who can smoke the best brisket. But cherry and hickory aren’t the only things we can use to impart the delicious aromas of smoke into foods. Using tea leaves to smoke food has become a popular trend. The tea leaves impart a unique flavor onto food and smoke very quickly, making it an ideal technique for quick cooking in restaurants, as well as at home.
The process can be done outdoors on a charcoal grill or indoors with a stovetop smoker or wok. The temperature should be kept relatively low – 120 F to 140 F – so indoor methods provide a little more control.
Make sure to open a window or two and turn on a vent if possible. It doesn’t create a terrible amount of smoke, but certainly does create enough to be a nuisance. This method of tea smoking adds an Asian influence to the process, so adding aromatics such as cinnamon, clove, peppercorn and anise complements the technique. Those aromas latch onto food. The addition of brown sugar adds a caramelized aroma as the sugar melts. The use of rice, however, doesn’t add much, if any, flavor or aroma. The rice acts as a sort of stabilizer, keeping ingredients from burning quickly.
This process is great for quick cooking items including salmon, shrimp, duck and thin cuts of meats. Other items certainly can be tea smoked, but require some advanced cooking before smoking. Pork belly, ribs and chicken all taste great when tea smoked, but would need to be partially cooked before placing in the smoker, otherwise the aromatics would burn and leave behind a bitter taste.
The flavor combinations are endless and could include citrus, baking spices, chiles and fresh herbs. Different teas will give very different flavors. Black tea offers the strongest flavor available, Jasmine tea will provide a very floral fragrance and green teas will be light and should only be used on very mild proteins. Have fun with different mixes of teas and spices to create your own unique flavors and aromas.
Cassy Vires is the owner and chef of Home Wine Kitchen and Table.
Tea-Smoked Salmon The smoke from the tea leaves adds exotic flavor to a familiar dish. Get creative with the aromatics to create your own flavorcombinations.
Serves | 4 |
Cure
2 cups kosher salt
2 cups light brown sugar
4 8-oz wild salmon fillets
Smoke
½ cup black tea leaves
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup uncooked Jasmine rice
8 whole star anise
2 cinnamon sticks, crushed
1 orange, zested
Vinaigrette
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
¾ cup olive oil
Salad
2 cups assorted leafy herbs (mint, basil, arugula, parsley, etc.)
salt and freshly ground black
pepper
½ cup pistachios, toasted
| Preparation – Cure | Combine kosher salt and light brown sugar. Place salmon fillets in a nonreactive container and completely cover, top to bottom, with salt cure. Refrigerate 45 minutes. Remove salmon from salt cure and gently brush off mixture. Pat fillets down with paper towels until meat is dry.
| Preparation – Smoke | Line the bottom of a wok or stove-top smoker with aluminum foil. Add tea leaves, brown sugar, rice and aromatics. Place smoker over low heat and cover. Heat until smoke begins to release, ideally 120บF. Place salmon fillets on a rack above the aromatics and cook, covered, for 10 minutes until medium-rare.
| Preparation – Vinaigrette | Combine vinegar, honey and mint in a blender and puree until smooth. In a slow, steady stream, add olive oil through the smoker’s feed tube while the motor is running. Set aside until ready to use.
| Preparation – Salad | Toss herbs with salt, pepper and vinaigrette. Place a small amount of salad on top of each salmon fillet and garnish with toasted pistachios.
